Skills of A Gracious Loser...

My brother wanted some audiobooks for Christmas for his daily commute to work. To oblige his request, one of the things Johanna and I got him was the audiobook The Carolina Way: Leadership Lessons from a Life in Coaching by Dean Smith. To say that our family are Tarheel fans would be an understatement. We bleed Carolina Blue. So I knew my brother would love this book. Over the Christmas break I rode with my brother from family gathering to family gathering and got to hear a little of the leadership lessons in The Carolina Way. One of the things that Dean Smith talks about is that every good leader has to learn to be a gracious loser. He says that good leaders don't want to lose, but they're also not afraid to fail. Here is how he recommends handling loss as a leader.

1. Recognize loss when it occurs. Admit it. Don't hide it.
2. Move to correct mistakes as quickly as possible.
3. Meet with everyone on the team involved in making the mistake. Ask this question: How can we learn from this?
4. Give everyone involved tasks to do to make sure the same thing doesn't happen again. Don't just talk about it - Implement these things.
5. Forgive yourself and others involved. It's over. It's in the past.
6. After you've learned everything possible from the loss or failure, vow never to think about it again. Move on and take more risks.

What do you think? How do you handle loss or deal with failure? At work? In ministry? At home?